Progress Report 2006

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Programmes in Development

The Mekong River Commission is constantly expanding its programme work in order to meet the needs of the Member States and is now in the process of developing several new programmes in response to country requests.

In 2006 Council approved the development of two new programmes: the Drought Management Programme and the Information and Knowledge Management Programme (IKMP). The IKMP encompasses all current data management work as well as the new Mekong-HYCOS project and the MRCS IS-portal. As it is partly in operation already, the IKMP is more fully described in an earlier section of this report.

The Hydropower Programme was approved by Council in 2005 and is seeking funding for full implementation.

Hydropower Programme

The total hydropower potential of the Mekong river system is estimated at 17,000 MW for the tributaries and 13,000 MW for the mainstream. Only 4,450 MW has been developed to date (1,600 MW in the LMB; 2850MW in the Upper Basin).

Demand in the LMB is expected to grow fast over the next 20 years, and there are substantial opportunities for trading of power between the countries in the region.

Hydropower options are included in the power development strategies of all the Mekong countries and the MRC believes that successful development of the region's hydropower potential will require a well structured and integrated programme founded on a basin-wide strategy, with due regard to environmental and social aspects.

The MRC's Hydropower Strategy, calls for development of the hydropower resources of the Mekong according to true leastcost planning, fully considering environmental and social impacts. It also sets as its objective that:

“The increasing demand for affordable electric energy in the MRC Member Countries is met with minimal negative impacts on the environment and local people, thereby promoting economic growth for the countries' mutual benefit".

To date the Hydropower Programme has had very limited resources at its disposal. Therefore, a wider Hydropower Programme has been under formulation at the MRCS. A programme document defining programme objectives, structure, outputs etc, will be produced in 2007 and funds are being sought for this.

Under the Hydropower Programme best options in the Lower Mekong Basin for sustainable development in the hydropower sector will be identified. At the basin-wide level MRC will facilitate cooperation among Line Agencies to promote proper planning and development of hydropower as well as monitoring of impacts and mitigation measures.

Participation of stakeholders and coordination with national authorities and international organisations in the formulation of development initiatives will be ensured and activities will be strongly linked to the BDP.

Drought Management Programme

Drought management is a critical issue for the people of the Basin as nearly 75% of the region's population is employed in agriculture, fisheries and forestry. Agricultural production is a significant contributor to and driver of economic growth in the riparian countries, and there is a need for sufficient water to meet these needs.

Availability of water however varies greatly both spatially and over time due to the natural long dry season, unnatural droughts, and lack of irrigation systems.

The Drought Management Programme will address the problem of droughts in the Lower Mekong Basin, their impacts upon agriculture and water resources and what management plans and mitigation policies might be put in place.

The Drought Management Programme will have strong links with the Flood Management and Mitigation Programme and with projects such as the irrigation and water use efficiency activities under the AIFP programme. It will also benefit from strong links with the Water Utilisation Programme.

Development of the programme proposal will be based on a study on Drought Forecasting and Management carried out in 2005 by the MRCS whose main objective was to enable identification of deficient hydrological conditions resulting from the natural variability of the regional climate, and to be able to distinguish these from impacts of resource developments and interventions.

In 2007 the MRCS will develop a comprehensive programme proposal, as well as trying to raise the funds to support the programme. The Drought Management concept will build on ongoing conceptual work of the WUP and will be closely coordinated with irrigation sector and water use efficiency work of the MRC.